Confederate Tide Rising

Robert E. Lee and the Making of Southern Strategy, 1861-1862

By: Joseph L. Harsh

Narrated by: Chaz Allen

In this reexamination of Confederate war aims, Joseph L. Harsh analyzes the military policy and grand strategy adopted by Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis in the first two years of the Civil War.

Recent critics of Lee have depicted him as a general of tactical brilliance, but one who lacked strategic vision. He has been accused of squandering meager military resources in vain pursuit of decisive victories during his first year in field command. Critics of Davis claim he went too far in adopting a “perimeter” policy which attempted to defend every square mile of Southern territory, scattering Confederate resources too thinly.

Harsh argues, to the contrary, that Davis and Lee’s policies allowed the Confederacy to survive longer than it otherwise could have and were the policies best designed to win Southern independence.

The book is published by The Kent State University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©1998 The Kent State University Press (P)2025 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"One of the most significant evaluations of Civil War strategy to be published in the past fifty years.” (Richard J. Sommers, U.S. Army Military History Institute)

Atrociously narrated

The narrator is so bad I can’t focus on the book. He mispronounces everything, he stumbles over basic words, and pauses in the middle of sentences